Three Methods to Evolve Your Hyperlink Constructing in 2023 — Whiteboard Friday

Welcome to 2023! Within the first Whiteboard Friday of the brand new yr, Paddy walks by means of three strategies to evolve your hyperlink constructing efforts — not reinventing the wheel, however by enhancing what you at the moment do.

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Video Transcription

Hello, Moz followers. Welcome to a different version of Whiteboard Friday. I am Paddy Moogan. I am the CEO of Aira. As we speak, we’ll discuss hyperlink constructing and how you can evolve your hyperlink constructing to its subsequent part and to enhance what you do in the mean time.

So we’ll speak by means of three strategies to enhance your hyperlink constructing and evolve it and enhance the outcomes you get for shoppers. 

1. Use the client journey to generate concepts

So firstly, primary, there’s a little bit of a problem typically with hyperlink constructing and the relevance of the content material that we produce for hyperlink constructing. So a technique we are able to truly enhance that and make our content material as related as attainable is to make use of the client journey to generate hyperlink constructing concepts.

Now, there’s a number of alternative ways of serious about the client journey, completely different funnels, completely different methodologies. One factor we use at Aira for that is the attention, consideration, and resolution phases, the place the client goes from being conscious of the issue, the ache factors, one thing they wish to repair, then their choices and making an attempt to determine, “Okay, who ought to I select to unravel that downside?”

After which, lastly, possibly getting their bank card out, choosing up the cellphone, emailing, that form of stuff to truly resolve who they are going to go along with. Now, we are able to use this mannequin to truly give you hyperlink constructing concepts. I’ll share how we do that at Aira. So there’s 4 pillars we are able to use to try to work out content material concepts which can be related to our clients. Firstly, we begin with the viewers themselves.

So who’re our viewers? Who’re we making an attempt to talk to? Who’re our ideally suited consumers for the services and products that we promote? In order that’s the place we begin. We then transfer on to the ache factors of our viewers. So what sorts of issues do they wrestle with? What sort of triggers can truly make them begin to search for a product corresponding to yours or a service corresponding to yours?

After which thirdly, what options do you supply as a model or an internet site to try to repair these ache factors for these clients and making an attempt to attach these issues collectively? Fourthly, what key phrases are you making an attempt to rank for? What are you making an attempt to rank for in Google? How does that join again to your service and your product? And what that permits you to do is to tie collectively these levels into precise rankings, precise key phrases that you just’re making an attempt to enhance along with your hyperlink constructing and your content material.

The good factor about utilizing these 4 areas to try to give you content material concepts for hyperlink constructing is that it forces relevance. It is actually arduous to truly do that. If you happen to stray too far-off from it, you give you concepts that are not very related. So in case you stick actually nearer to it, it’s kind of more durable. That is form of the purpose. What you are making an attempt to do right here is strike that stability between concepts that may get hyperlinks, but additionally content material concepts which can be very related to your viewers and who you are making an attempt to promote your merchandise or your companies to.

So try to use these 4 factors right here to give you your concepts, and ensure the concepts you give you are actually related to your buyer and never simply being completed purely for hyperlink constructing. 

2. Transfer past campaigns

Second level, second factor we are able to do to evolve our hyperlink constructing is to maneuver past huge, shiny, interactive hyperlink constructing campaigns. Now, we have constructed a whole bunch of those through the years at Aira. We’ll proceed to construct them.

I like a great, shiny, interactive hero marketing campaign. However I consider there’s extra we are able to do in the case of content-led hyperlink constructing. So there’s 4 issues we are able to do right here. So firstly, try to make any campaigns, any content material that you just give you evergreen. What I imply by that’s it should not be a begin and a cease marketing campaign, the place you launch a marketing campaign, do your outreach, after which neglect about it and transfer on to the subsequent one.

Try to create concepts and campaigns that you could outreach and promote over and over and over. If you are able to do that, it continues to be related all year long, throughout a number of years. It is not only a one-off marketing campaign that you just’re hoping will get hyperlinks earlier than you progress on to the subsequent one. The second factor you are able to do is definitely to not cease the outreach. So most SEOs truly will outreach a marketing campaign after which cease as soon as that marketing campaign is completed and transfer on to the subsequent one.

What you need to be making an attempt to do as an alternative is create campaigns that you could all the time outreach and all the time promote. So attempt to not cease your outreach, and what occurs over time is you construct up a number of campaigns, a number of content material items, and you find yourself with a pleasant, huge financial institution of content material that you could regularly outreach and get hyperlinks to. It is not relying upon one marketing campaign after one other to get hyperlinks. 

3. Intention for hyperlinks you did not ask for

Third level we are able to do is to have a look at current content material.

So once more, if you’re serious about creating hyperlink constructing campaigns, the pure tendency is to think about one thing new, to consider, “Okay, what can we create that is model new, hasn’t been completed earlier than, fully new marketing campaign for an internet site or a shopper?” Nicely, truly, that is completely high quality, however there could also be some current content material on that web site that’s link-worthy. So ensure that, if you begin working with an internet site or a brand new model, take a look at what they have already, see which content material they have that is likely to be link-worthy, could have gotten hyperlinks previously, and try to outreach and promote that content material while you are constructing new campaigns.

This works rather well notably for companies, as a result of if you’re launching a marketing campaign, it takes a little bit of time to give you concepts, do the manufacturing, do the design. While you are doing all of that, if you could find current content material on that web site that’s link-worthy, you possibly can promote that and get hyperlinks to that while you are constructing the massive marketing campaign. And also you’re offsetting the danger there as nicely and getting hyperlinks within the quick time period in addition to the long run.

Fourthly, simplify your execution. Not each content material piece must be huge, shiny, interactive, full-page takeovers. It may be so simple as a weblog submit. It could possibly be a small, mini infographic. Attempt to not fear an excessive amount of about huge, fancy executions. Let the concept lead the execution. And if that implies that you write only a very, quite simple weblog submit with a few photos, possibly a number of copy and bullet factors, that is completely high quality.

If that is one of the best ways to execute your thought, then that is what it’s best to go along with and never fear an excessive amount of about making one thing interactive or huge only for the sake of it. So thirdly, the third factor we are able to do to raise our hyperlink constructing is to intention for hyperlinks that you just did not ask for. So a whole lot of the time with hyperlink constructing methods they depend upon outreach, and outreach means sending emails, making an attempt to get in contact with site owners and hyperlink prospects and get hyperlinks from them.

That is completely high quality. We should always proceed doing that. However one place you wish to try to get to is to create content material the place it naturally will get hyperlinks by itself. So you could nicely do outreach and get hyperlinks for that content material. However in addition to that, you are additionally getting individuals who hyperlink to that content material naturally, so you are not relying an excessive amount of simply on the outreach. Now there’s three examples right here of content material you possibly can create that really will do that. Now the very first thing to recollect is definitely content material that ranks tends to get hyperlinks, as a result of when individuals are doing analysis into completely different areas and making an attempt to write down about sure industries, they might search for content material they will additionally hyperlink to.

So, for instance, when you’ve got a web page that is about statistics and tendencies in your business, and somebody is writing an article about your business and tendencies in 2022, in the event that they discover your content material, there is a good likelihood that they are going to hyperlink to it as nicely within the content material they’re producing. But when it ranks, they have extra likelihood of discovering it. The second space is long-form guides, actually in-depth, actually detailed content material. If you could find some good subject concepts to write down about within the long-form approach, long-form guides are likely to rank for lots of long-tail and mid-tail key phrases.

Once more, if it ranks rather well, it’s totally detailed, very techy, this works rather well for very technical merchandise and really technical companies. If you happen to can create content material about your services or products that is fairly technical, it is received a great likelihood of rating nicely and in addition being referenced and linked to by different web sites. And thirdly, business stories. So truly, we do that ourselves at Aira.

We produced a State of Hyperlink Constructing Report just a few months in the past. It is a report that will get referenced loads by our business as a result of it is a regular within the business for hyperlink constructing and folks consider it once they’re writing their very own content material. So in your business, in case you can create business benchmark stories, state of business stories, surveys, that form of stuff, that really shares data and shares info with the business, it is simple for individuals to reference that in their very own content material that they produce as nicely.

However once more, it must rank nicely for individuals to seek out it within the first place. So there’s 3 ways to truly evolve your hyperlink constructing and attempt to elevate it to the subsequent stage past campaigns, past outreach, and truly making an attempt to get hyperlinks that you just did not ask for. In order that’s Whiteboard Friday for me. I am Paddy Moogan. If you happen to’ve received any questions, drop them into the feedback under. I will be joyful to get again to you.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com